"For me, words are just words, nothing else"
About this Quote
A novelist insisting that "words are just words" is either false modesty or a dare. With Guillermo Cabrera Infante, it reads like a provocation aimed at anyone who treats language as sacred property or political instrument. Coming out of revolutionary Cuba, then into exile, he lived in a world where words were never "just" anything: slogans could harden into law, euphemisms could conceal violence, and the wrong phrase could make you suspicious. Calling them "nothing else" is a way to puncture the inflated moralism that regimes (and their opponents) attach to language.
The subtext is slyly double-edged. On the surface, it sounds like a rejection of metaphor, ideology, and literary pretension: relax, they're only marks and noises. But the very flatness is a wink. Cabrera Infante built his reputation on punning, wordplay, phonetics, and the sensuous music of speech; he knew better than most that "just words" can reorganize perception. The line smuggles in a hard-earned skepticism: if language is endlessly manipulable, don't be too easily moved by grand phrases. Listen for what power wants you to hear.
It also hints at an exile's unease. When homeland becomes contested, even vocabulary feels confiscated. Declaring words "nothing else" is a bid to reclaim them from national and ideological ownership, returning them to craft, play, and personal freedom. The intent isn't to empty words of force; it's to refuse the coercive meanings others demand you accept.
The subtext is slyly double-edged. On the surface, it sounds like a rejection of metaphor, ideology, and literary pretension: relax, they're only marks and noises. But the very flatness is a wink. Cabrera Infante built his reputation on punning, wordplay, phonetics, and the sensuous music of speech; he knew better than most that "just words" can reorganize perception. The line smuggles in a hard-earned skepticism: if language is endlessly manipulable, don't be too easily moved by grand phrases. Listen for what power wants you to hear.
It also hints at an exile's unease. When homeland becomes contested, even vocabulary feels confiscated. Declaring words "nothing else" is a bid to reclaim them from national and ideological ownership, returning them to craft, play, and personal freedom. The intent isn't to empty words of force; it's to refuse the coercive meanings others demand you accept.
Quote Details
| Topic | Deep |
|---|
More Quotes by Guillermo
Add to List
